Displaced
by Danen5
Summary: Five players are displaced from their own reality whilst entering the virtual reality gameworld sending them to the Mass Effect Universe. There the five players and their considerably more powerful ships will be faced with many challenges, from greedy extremists, arrogant councilors, angry asari, themselves and most importantly the Reapers. Set at beginning of ME2 through ME3.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Just some changes to the content of the story. The following content have been added:**

 ** _The Techno Consortium is predominantly Germanic among three other major ethnic groups; French, Scandinavian (or Nordic) and Polish along with a minority; mostly Slavic, North African and Middle-eastern._**

 ** _Luther is now a Rear Admiral (Konteradmiral) and commands a 'Command Dreadnought' as his chosen warship._**

 ** _Consortium Military utilizes WW2 era German ranking system without the 'Party' elements added, NOTE: No offense is intended in this regard._**

 **Also I forgot something important:**

 **Disclaimer – I do not own ME, it belongs to BioWare or whoever else it is who owns its copyright and other stuff related to owning the game and its contents along with everything else in it…blah, blah, blah. You all get it. Anything being inserted into the ME verse is my intellectual property except for the rather obvious historically correct terminologies and names that I'll be using….yadda, yadda, yadda. You all got it.**

* * *

 **2030 AD**

VR-GameCon

0745 hrs

15 minutes until Elimination round begins...

 _Where is he?_ An impatient young man grumbled as he paced back and forth. His feet half dragged on the polished marble floor, to the casual observer he would have seemed slightly insane...in fact his disheveled and shaggy hairdo along with the angry expression on his face would rub people off the wrong way.

 _Will you relax_? A man standing next to the crazy angry looking guy sighed. _You've been doing that for like three hours._

Shooting a glare at his friend, the man sighed in reply and rubbed at his temples. _Sorry, I'm just a little nervous is all._

 _No kidding_. His friend nodded. The man wore a beight green collar shirt and blue jeans. Unlike the other guy, he was well groomed with smoothed back black hair and a light beard stubble. _I just hope he gets here on time._

 **5 minutes to Elimination round...**

 _Finally!_ The shaggy haired guy exclaimed angrily, he glared at the newcomer who wasn't at all intimidated by the stare. _What took you so bloody long!?_

 _Well hello to you too, James_. The newcomer said with a small hint of sarcasm laced with a smidge of annoyance. _Oh hey_ _Frank._

 _Whoa, whoa. You still have to explain why you almost didn't make it_. James barked, angry at being ignored.

 _If you really want to know, I'll tell you._ The new guy said, sighing lightly. _I got held up at the department store...some schmuck tried to rob the store. He had a gun and so naturally as a cop it's my duty to react._

 _Dude you haven't even finished your training yet_. James pointed out but before he could continue Frank interrupted him.

 _That's beside the point. What you need to ask is if Luther here got the guy_. Frank smiled and nodded when Luther mouthed his thanks to him when James turned around.

 _Traitor_. James growled.

 _Listen, as much as I would love to stay here and chat._ Luther smiled smugly at James, _I think we should probably go in now coz the E-round is about to start_.

Sure enough when he said that the PA system came to life and a woman's voice spoke, announcing that the Elimination round would be beginning in a minute.

 _We better get inside_. Frank told them as he stood up from his chair. _I don't want our spot to be taken by some newbie. Especially when it's the new 'Mk. 2 VR Headgear' that's involved_.

 _Hey I heard about that_. Luther said thoughtfully as they entered the complex. _The Mk. 2 is upgraded to include the new features right? I read about that on Time Magazine, it supposedly includes pain and sensory input._ James piped up as they crossed through the reception area alongside several other people.

 _Does that mean we get to feel pain when we get hurt...in game?_ Frank asked, hopeful that he'd be one of the first to test this new revolutionary technology.

 _That's the idea. But don't forget about the other sensory inputs._ Luther reminded them. _We also get to smell, hear, touch, feel and a load of other this is going to be awesome!_ Frank yelled out in delight. All three men stared in awe at the sight of all the different players who showed up at the convention, those participating in the tournament that is.

The PA system came on again and the same voice spoke again, a little giddy and excited about the event it would seem.

 ** _Welcome players to the first ever VR tournament!_** It began. **_I am Melissa. And I'll be your host for today's first round, the Elimination Round. Now if you'll direct your attention to the holo display on the right wall you'll see the leader boards. The first game will be announced soon._**

Said wall lit up in a myriad of colors as the hologram flickered to life. It jumbled around for a while before it solidified into a table filled with gamer tags, the names of all the seven hundred odd players present in this city alone. Granted this was a small city but the turn-out is going great. The hologram flickered one more time before it focused again, this time it showed not seven hundred but over a thousand players.

 _*Whistle* I guess I wasn't the only one who might have been late._ Luther grinned causing James to mutter something about him being an idiot. He ignored it of course, James may be a trained Hapkido black belt but he's got the personality of a disgruntled hyena.

 _Come on guys. Our station is this way._ Frank gestured for them to follow him. They weaved through the now thick crowd trying to get to their station.

 **10 minutes later...**

Luther sat down on the comfortable leather reclining chair as he lay back with his arms stretched out in front of him. A yawn escaped his lips and he set the VR headgear onto his head, the puffy interior felt comfortable and the gear fit well on his head.

On the far side of the complex hall, the large holographic screen displayed the current setup of the first day's match. The chosen game was a favorite of his, one of the company's first ever releases, Flagship: Naval Combat, it was a real time space strategy game with a first person perspective with 2D and later 3D command interface for interacting with the fleet you are given, more of a small task force really.

He was a fanatic when it came to RTS games of all kinds and with the release of the first Flagship game, he immediately got hooked.

Now, the company is taking they're taking their Flagship franchise to the next level, the elimination round will feature the first ever demo game-play, pitting players against each other via free for all deathmatch, it is divided into several different areas of the largest map Flagship graphics could handle. For Luther, this was going to be a challenge since he was mostly a team player but he liked a challenge now and again to keep him on his toes. His keen tactical mind however, was still underdeveloped as he often put it, his friends just shake their heads at this. James had even commented, saying that, "…modesty is unfitting for an arrogant jerk such as yourself."

To which Luther would reply, "Hey! I'm not arrogant!"

The young cadet smiled at that particular memory but then closed his eyes as the feeling of electric currents passing through his brain and nervous system. This sensational feeling was just as the developers described during the development phase of their new platform.

Luther and his friends had pre-planned everything beforehand, from what race to pick, to which faction and what types of ships they'd use. However, they'd also have to take into account the other players and the threat they'd pose to themselves. It would be a close shave with the hundreds of players fighting each other, luckily the default five ship flotilla of the original Flagship game is still in effect but even then it would take all of Luther's tactical skills in order to survive and hopefully win this first fight. He had confidence in his abilities and those of his friends, but felt a little skeptical about his chances of survival when several other more experienced players were present in the running.

His headgear began whirring as the startup sequence began, he mentally prepared himself and then in a blink of an eye he was no longer within the complex, rather, he was inside a blank white room without a body.

 **[Welcome to the Processing Room.]** A synthetic voice greeted him, it echoed from all around him and without a physical body, Luther felt a nauseating feeling within his stomach, though he wasn't sure he could throw up inside the game.

 **[Please select your starting race.]**

The white room was then replaced with a large 3D holographic chamber where life-like bipedal humanoids, three weird looking aliens with large heads, bodies and other absurdly disproportionately scaled limbs. There was a human among the myriad of alien races and with a thought, Luther chose that particular template.

A flashing group of floating words appeared to his right which prompted him to enter into the customization phase of his starting character. The game also emphasizes another element of games that he found interesting, role-playing. Not wanting to utilize that rather complex and complicated customization options available, he instead decided to try out the headgear's other function.

This allowed for the headgear, which had made a full scan of his facial feature and the station in which he sat, which also scanned his body structure, to replace the template with an image of his own body. If he was going to describe his physical appearance, he'd have to say he was 7ft tall, slightly fit (he was a bit overweight after years of inactivity-meaning no exercises for six years) so no rippling muscles yet but his six pack is becoming visible and the fat was gone from his upper and lower body so that's an improvement, he was tanned and has a scar running across his right arm from his shoulder to his wrist, though he rarely talks about how he got it.

In describing his face, he'd give an honest answer and say his skull was a bit pointy (?) at the top sort of like a natural Mr. T style, his hair vacuum black but currently cut into a military buzz cut, the shape of his jaw square and strong but had been broken once before, his nose was neither large nor small it just seemed right, his eyebrows arched in an angry frown, where his eyes themselves are colored a deep golden which is a rare color (a genetic disorder that, unfortunately affected his eyesight, making the need for spectacles a must but with the medical technological advances he's gradually improving his eyesight) and a small scar above his right eye that cut vertically across his right eyebrow.

(AN: I'm not really good with description of the human anatomy, or any other sort of anatomy alien or otherwise, but I try)

Having completed the character creation sequence, the 3D interface exploded into a mass of tiny specks of pixels and later reformed with more words floating and slightly pulsing.

 **[State your Character Name and Surname.]**

' _This should be straight forward._ ' Luther thought as he decided on which of his aliases should he used. In the end though he ended up entering his real name but gave a different last name. The display system once more faded into billions of tiny pixels before it reformed, this time the words that followed made him pause with indecision. He knew, of course, that the Flagship series has a total of 4 factions within the Human race itself, they were as listed below;

 **[Please choose your affiliation:]**

 **[Transentience]**

 **[Terran Union]**

 **[Techno Consortium]**

 **[United Federation]**

Luther considered these options, without a doubt he knew his friends would choose the United Federation since it has the cheapest but most powerful capital ships earlier in the game, however, if he knew James then the martial arts nut would probably consider choosing the **_Drek_** , but Luther himself was leaning towards the Human's Consortium because of their rather powerful defensive capabilities regarding ship designs and fielded among the most advanced weapons technology in the Human race rivaling that of the four-armed aliens called the _' **Jak'Tar** '._ What he liked about this particular faction is that they fielded giant piloted mechs replacing the roles standard fighters and bombers do.

 **[Techno Consortium chosen, are you sure?]**

 **[Yes/No]**

Luther chose yes.

 **[User login contains USER save file]**

 **[Scanning for save file]**

 **[Save file detected…]**

 **[Initializing Integration]**

 **[1%...]**

 **[15%...]**

 **[24%...]**

 **[39%...]**

 **[43%...]**

 **[58%...]**

 **[65%...]**

 **[76%...]**

 **[81%...]**

 **[98%...]**

 **[100%...]**

 **[Integration Complete]**

 **[Welcome Back... _'Konteradmiral' Luther Wolfe_ ]**

For perhaps what seemed to be hours, Luther underwent the selection of his ship and its contents, the customization of space ships in the game was one of the key aspects of said game that made it an instant favorite with RTS players, the game mechanics itself were inspired by an earlier predecessor of the game with the same name as well as a few other game titles in the early 2010s.

In the end, Luther chose a 'Command Dreadnought' as his ship, the vessel in question was heavily armored with a high output shield system, armed with 140 missile ports, 138 torpedo bays, 256 rapid firing Point-defense turrets with state of the art pulse laser technology, 2 Nutcracker Kinetic Cannons with a secondary heavy energy lance mounted on a turret on the top hull of the ship. That is the extent of the ship's offensive and defensive capabilities so far as he was concerned, however, he didn't discount the piloted mechs stored within the ship's fifteen hangar bays. The ship also has ventral hangars within the midsection for its medium frigate and heavy corvette complements, in total 2 of the frigates and 4 corvettes.

All in all, the dreadnought was a sight to behold at 5 and a half thousand meters in length, 3 thousand meters its width and 3.3 thousand meters in height. Being a 'Command' ship limits its role to support but if one wanted, the ship can move into a battlefield to utilize its deadly armaments, however, it is vulnerable to boarding and long range kinetic or energy lance attacks.

 **A few minutes later…**

The hologram images shifted into a million specks of dust like pixels before the white room returned, he was momentarily blinded when the room exploded in a brilliant flash of white light. He suddenly sat up, his vision blurry and his hearing dulled out. Shaking his head he cleared out the dull thumping he was hearing in his ear and his vision began to clear, he looked around him but then realized something. A series of smells, sounds and feelings came rushing at him like a train on collision course. A small smile crept up the side of his face as he remembered about the new updated features for the VR headgear.

 _'So that's what this is like'._ He chuckled, ' _it's realistic, and I'll give the developers that much credit.'_

He noticed that he was in a room, it was clean, too clean and looked highly futuristic in his eyes. He recognized the design from when he played through the first three times as a Consortium Captain. The sleek glass computer terminal was where he knew it'd be, right next to the water and food dispenser unit. The room was a mixture of cream white and light grey color and was sparsely decorated, there was the holographic image of the Consortium's coat of arms, a large cog wheel centered on a robotic arm closed in a fist, all along the surface of the cog wheel were intricate circuitry lines that seemed to pulse as the hologram floated just above the small white table near his bed.

He noticed the table had an integrated digital clock, it read; 06:45 am. He sighed and brought his feet around him to the side of his surprisingly comfy bed, he gasped involuntarily as he noticed his right leg was metallic and had complicated machinery visible to his eyes, he then noticed his left forearm and right hand were similarly made of the same thing his right leg was. He shook his head and blinked several times.

' _This can't be right._ ' He thought, ' _I was sure I didn't choose bionic limbs as part of my character...besides these feel way too real…you know what, never mind._ '

Deciding to ignore his bionic limbs for a while he got up and walked over to the center of his room, it was not large but big enough to fit the bed and other essential furniture in it, he wondered where how he was going to get dressed when he noticed something odd about the UI. It wasn't showing his health bar like it was supposed to in the demo vids he saw during the commercial marketing of the game nor was it similar to the beta tests he'd done on the Mk. 1 VR Headgear.

But he was distracted when a bunch of holographic images and words showed up not one foot in front of his face, he looked a little confused at first but then moved his hands towards it only for it to go right past them. He turned his head around to the left and the images and words followed, he realized this had to be the UI, then easily deduced that it was via mental manipulation that the thing worked. He thought of how he was going to get dressed and the UI indicated the far wall opposite his bed, a small diamond shaped indicator with the words; _Wardrobe_ flashing on it caused him to shrug and walk over to the wall.

The wall in question faded to reveal a small room, there were clothes on either side of a single aisle. He walked into it and saw long pants, jeans, t-shirts, collared shirts, leather jackets, black combat shoes, a few slippers, business type suits but no ties, lab coats and other accessories such as glasses, watches, rings and more. There were also black uniforms adorned with golden laces and ribbons indicating his rank of _Konteradmiral_ , however, what caught his attention was the large glass panel case which held something truly spectacular in his eyes, the thing was leather-like spandex material with insulated interior but has an integrated mini-nanite fabrication factory, simply known as a _Fabric_ , to provide for armor and weapons if what his UI/HUD was telling him is true. It looked similar to the flight suits his character wore in the first Flagship release.

He decided to wear the suit/armor and instead of the usual flash of light and you're equipped with almost any weapon or armor, he had to put on the suit manually which took a while. When he was finished he was grinning like an idiot seeing as how he was badass, he always wondered what it was like to be inside of a sci-fi setting and now he was living it. Thank god for game developers.

There was an urgent chiming noise coming from the door of his room and he hurried over to see who it was. A holo-screen popped up to show a young looking man with the discernible insignia of a _Seekadett_ (Naval Cadet), the guy looked worried for some reason.

Pressing a holo-button on the pop-up screen, the door slid open to the right and the cadet was standing in front of Luther, the young man took one look at him before doing a stiff salute, clicking his heels.

"Mein herr." The _seekadett_ began, hurriedly. "You're needed on the bridge."

Now, Luther wasn't an actual admiral or ship captain, nor has he ever been in the navy or any maritime service, yet he still understood some basic things about navy protocols and procedures. So he had to ask, rather carefully.

"Why didn't the bridge call me on my personal com?" Luther said, he hoped he sounded the part of an annoyed officer. Heck, he was even putting on a very convincing frown.

It must have worked, because the _seekadett_ looked like he was pissing in his pants, his eyes darting from side to side, his body shivering slightly and his right foot tapping on the floor. Seeing what he'd done and not wanting to upset the kid further, he stopped him from whatever he was going to say next.

"It doesn't matter." Luther held his hand up, "I'll be up there in five minutes."

"M-m-mein herr," the _seekadett_ stammered, "This is urgent. _Kommodore_ La Fayette needs you on the con."

Luther looked at the kid in a puzzled manner then began to realize something, within the demo vids of the game he'd been shown, interaction between NPCs and players when it came to dialogue (which was within the RPG element of the game) includes a timed dialogue tree. There was no such thing present in this conversation.

Something was wrong. He tried to bring up the game menu or something similar but found, much to his initial surprise turned irritation, nothing showing up. The User Interface that appeared in his vision was something entirely unrelated to the game menu, he realized, and again to his annoyance he couldn't bring up the menu. He also noticed that the ensign was visibly sweating…no game he has ever played has that function.

' _WTF! What the hell is going on here!?_ ' He mentally screamed while managing to maintain a calm and composed exterior expression. He smiled a little at the cadet who now had a confused yet frightened look, and spoke calmly. " _Seekadett_ …."

"Dietrich Heinz, mein herr." The guy saluted when he realized what the _Konteradmiral_ (Rear Admiral equivalent) wanted from him.

"Of course, _Seekadett_ Heinz." Luther nodded, his mind slow on the uptake but getting there as he motioned for the young cadet saying, "You were saying...about the bridge?"

"Ja, mein herr." Dietrich led the way through the white corridor towards the bridge. Luther followed closely at the _seekadett_ 's heel still thinking that this was all a bizarre but exhilarating experience, even when it's becoming apparent that something odd was or has happened.

 **5 minutes later...**

Luther walked onto the bridge of his ship feeling very confused. He knew he had to figure out what was happening to him and hopefully fix it, but at the same time he felt a swelling excitement pumping within his chest as he gazed at the extremely high level of technology, the holographic display at each of the terminals on the bridge left him speechless. So much so he forgot about his predicament momentarily. He snapped out of his reverie when the ensign he'd been following stopped.

"Achtung!" Someone called out as the bridge crew snapped to attention. Luther gestured, nervously, for them to be at ease and watched with some fascination as each crew member not near him quickly returning their attention to their terminals rapidly flicking through various holographic screens that seem to pop up at odd but quick intervals.

 _"Konteradmiral,"_ _Seekadett_ Dietrich said, bringing Luther's attention back to him. _"Kommodore_ La Fayette requests your presence at the forward observation port."

"Of course..." Luther noticed the guy was still there so just as an afterthought he added, "You're dismissed, _seekadett_."

Giving another salute, the cadet did an about turn and doubled timed it to his terminal, he sat next to the helmsman. Luther could still hardly believe where he was right now and made his way to the forward observation port, a large window, with added layered protection against munitions, intense heat, solar flares and radiation, as well as other problems that can be hazardous for a space ship.

He ran his fingers across the sleek white tables that formed the only solid parts for the terminals, he whistled in his mind as he felt the smooth and slippery surface caressing his fingers. Which he must add, felt weird since he now knew that his right hand was mostly bionic and not organic, whatever happened to this body he now inhabits, he just hoped there weren't any other things that were 'replaced'. Of course, retaining the ability to feel in his right hand as well as his left arm is kind of a miracle if he did say so himself but he doesn't have the luxury to ponder much on that or how he was gonna get out of this mess.

He reached his destination where an elderly man, who Luther guessed to be in his late fifties, seemingly unaware of his presence. Clearing his throat, Luther got the old man's attention. " _Konteradmiral_ , I'm glad you're here." The oldie sounded relieved.

 _"Kommodore."_ Luther nodded. He felt a little embarrassed at having been addressed with such respect by an old man, who in his mind would be the one Captaining this ship not him, if he guessed the older man's age right. ' _Damn. He's an NPC..yet so life-like_ ' Luther raised a brow at that thought, this was getting weirder than it already was but it can't get any worse, can it? However, he couldn't deny that commanding a large number of people has always been more natural to him than any other skill in his still expanding arsenal. So he continued, "What's the situation?"

"Well, current ship status is green." _Kommodore_ La Fayette spoke and paused a while as if he was reading something, then added. "The crew are all accounted for, weapons and shields are optimal and on standby. We're also getting transmission from the rest of the taskforce that they're green across the board."

"Achtung!" A nearby bridge officer, a _Leutnant zur see_ as indicated by the sleeve lace on his BDU. Luther and his XO both looked toward the man. "Scanners have picked up activity near the stellar body. I've determined two signatures but both are identified to be utilizing a form of dark energy manipulation which are also throwing off our gravity sensors."

"What other information can you get?" The wizened _Kommodore_ walked up to the terminal, watching the _Leutnant_ 's fingers moved fluidly along the holo screens. Luther did the same and stood next to La Fayette.

"Not much bu-wait a minute." The _Leutnant_ 's brows furrowed. "Sensors are picking up increase in energy with one of the unknowns. It seems to be preparing weapons systems of some sort. Standby for deep sensor scan. Analyzing...analyzing...results are back. The unknown vessel appears to be firing a concentrated beam of molten metal but its properties have shifted enough to mimic a high intensity laser beam. It's on par with most of our medium DEW load-outs."

Luther considered this information briefly before turning an eye to the other unknown vessel pointing at it. _"Leutnant,_ put that on a larger display."

"Ja, Herr _Konteradmiral_." The man complied and within moments the space between the ceiling and the bridge floor was filled with a map of the star system along with their ship and the taskforce's current position. He saw the two unknown ships as they passed the sun and headed towards a planet, there the second vessel, vertical in its design and clearly made from some kind of organic material, started firing at more sleeker ship. Said ship was strange in its aesthetic design, it was also nimble and dodged most of the attacks from their pursuer, it was tagged by the computer as being analogous to a light cruiser. Luther then made up his mind.

"Bring ship to bear, initiate rescue operation. Target is the light cruiser analogue, designated Unknown Alpha. Sleek ship frame, designated Distress 1 is priority rescue package." Luther gave out the order and fully expected his strange order to be questioned. However, much to his own surprise, it wasn't and instead the XO was barking out a repeat of his order to the crew who rushed to comply. "Oh and tell the rest of the group to back us up if it looks like we're going to die."

A few men chuckled when he said that, this earned them a grin from Luther, who was beginning to like his new-found authority, although he sure wished he knew what the heck was going on with him. After a few minutes of traversing the great expanse of space between his ship and its target, he squinted to get a better look at the sleek ship's hull. He thought he saw markings alongside it.

 _*"Offiziersanwärter."_ He called out with hope and was glad to get a response. His brain finally caught up to the fact that he's been calling out naval personnel ranks in German of all languages and could understand what they meant, not that he minded but because he didn't speak an ounce of the language. This miffed him somewhat but like the situation he found himself in, he decided to shelf it for the moment until he finds the right time to fully contemplate on why he couldn't access the game's menu or for that matter why he felt a chill run down his spine at the mere thought of something wrong happening to his brain.

"Mein herr?" A nearby woman perked up. Her eyes glistening and alert, ears straining to listen.

"Enhance image of Distress 1, get me a clear image of its hull." He ordered. She complied and in a few minutes just before coming out of their short FTL hop, he got a glimpse of the distress ship's hull and a name was on it clear as day and confusing as hell.

It read: **_Normandy_**.

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 ** _Review and Comment_**

 ** _Updates will be sporadic._**

 ** _*Officer Candidate (Lowest Ranking Naval Officer)_**

 ** _-Danen5_**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: This is may seem a little off but bear with me here…the Asari are kinda hard for me to write, especially their homeworld that is why I'm requesting assistance from you dear readers on the number of ships and available reinforcements for the Asari homeworld. At this point I'm just winging it.  
**

 **Oh and yeah, we'll get back to Luther in a moment.**

 **This Chapter is now rated M for insinuations, I won't change the content but I do apologize to anyone who may have been offended. There will likely be no more of this type of content but if there is then I apologize in advance, in life we are faced with harsh realities that make us wanna kill someone. Also the Federation soldiers are vulgar and have poor aim (Regulars) but it's the Fallen soldiers that are likely to go through with what they say, I'll explain more later on that.**

 **Minor changes in this chapter update.**

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 **[Frank Amar/Rank: Commodore/Race: Human/Affiliation: United Federation]**

Frank woke up with a start. He was sweating and his head hurt, it's like somebody took a sledgehammer and hit his head with it. Then as quickly as that feeling came it went, but now it was replaced with an ear splitting blaring sound that grated on his hearing.

' _I swear that if—_ ' He paused as he remembered where and what he was doing before he got here. The room he was in was dull grey and Spartan with only the bed, the chair a desk and a weird boxy rectangle on top of said desk. ' _If I didn't know any better I'd say I had one hell of a hangover._ '

The man's musing was interrupted when the room shuddered. He picked himself off the bed and walked over to a closet door, he wasn't sure if there was even a closet behind that door, but when it slid to the side he sighed and quickly put on some clothes.

It was a bit of a hassle but he got into a black officer's uniform adorned with red trim lines along his shoulders, arms and legs, the gold stars on either side of his collars coupled with the laurel wreathes indicated his rank as _Commodore_. As he made to exit the room he staggered to the right only able to catch himself as he pressed his hand against the wall, he frowned when suddenly he lurched forward hitting his head against the door.

The room shook so much he couldn't get back up, but that was the last thing on his mind right now as he grabbed hold of his aching head. It didn't hurt that much but it still stings. Groaning or growling, depending on who heard him, he shoved himself off the floor with little effort and stabilized his stumbling feet. The door slid open to the left and he was greeted with a chaotic scene, in the corridor were a number of crewmen, all dressed in black but with different trim colors.

He recognized the symbol of the Federation, the Earth globe surrounded by laurel leaves with an American influenced bird of prey clutching the top protectively. ' _So game start, eh?_ ' he smirked.

A passing crewmen whose collar insignia ranked him as a Petty Officer, stopped when he saw him. Frank raised a brow and demanded, "Report!" He figured that was the dialogue trigger, except the much expected tree didn't show up. ' _Huh_ …'

"Ship is under attack by unknowns, Commodore." The PO responded. Frank considered this information and decided to follow up on it. Pushing back thoughts on the dialogue glitch, he continued. "Take me to the bridge." Frank ordered.

"This way, sir." The lower ranked officer turned and ran back the way he was coming from, this prompted Frank to follow in a light jog. He did notice a lot of the other crewmen saluting him as he passed by.

A few minutes later he was in an elevator heading up to the bridge. The doors open to reveal what he could only describe as 'controlled chaos', the bridge crew were rushing about like headless chickens with a few screaming and shouting at each other for whatever reasons, others calling out system functionality and status whilst a pair of officers had even started a fistfight for some reason. That last one amused Frank, he didn't know why those two would be fighting in all this mess but he was sure to ask them about it.

"Officer on deck!" the only nodded their heads in his direction and not giving him the general salute, understandable under the current circumstance. They were under attack after all.

"Give me a sit-rep." Frank spoke in a commanding and authoritative tone, he'd been practicing for this day and it's paying off. However, he's been feeling an odd sensation that things weren't as they were. Sure he was playing in perhaps the best form of gaming experience there is in the world but he's begun to get this odd feeling that something was wrong.

Shaking it off he listened as the various console officers shouted out things that either made or didn't make sense. He was more of an army guy than navy when it came to RTS games but this by far is a great experience for him, heck he may even learn a few things about actual command of military forces and prepare him for when he entered the military academy. At least that was the plan, shattered when he would later find out the truth of his predicament.

The bridge shook along with the ship as it was hit once more, the shields were holding, barely, against an almost continuous stream of blazing firepower. Kinetic in nature and very, very fast, the ship under his command was beginning to lose its shields. From what his tactical officer had told him, they were surrounded by at least a hundred alien ships of unknown design…he could tell they were rather pretty to look at though, but damn can they bite!

"Why the hell aren't we firing?!" Frank demanded to know. He wasn't an admiral but even he knew that his ship would be able to return fire at the very least.

"Sir, weapons are offline. I don't know what the problem is but the Computer's on it." The Weapons Officer informed him. Frank growled as he ran his fingers through his slick black hair, frustrated that his first combat operation in this kickass game was not going well. He also came to a sudden realization, ' _Wait a minute…as a Commodore, don't I command a Battle-Cruiser?_ '

"Commander, where are our fighter squadrons?" Frank asked his XO who looked at him then back at the Communication Officer. He looked back at Frank and then, with a visible gulp, responded.

"They're scrambling now, Commodore. However, the hangar bays sustained structural damage during the first few minutes of the attack. We've got debris littering the tarmacs."

"Aren't the mechs supposed to clear that kind of hazard?" Frank wondered to which the XO quickly replied.

"Yes, sir, they've completed clearing debris from tarmacs in hangars 3, 5 and 1. Squdrons 5 through 9 are deploying as we speak."

Frank pondered this for a minute then looked out at the assembly of alien warships, despite their pretty aesthetic looks, those things packed quite the punch and he didn't even know who they belonged to. However, it would seem his ship had somehow appeared above a planet, possibly why these aliens had opened fire on his vessel in the first place.

From his peripheral vision, he caught a glimpse of a console screen pulsing green, then the voice of the WO floated over to the rest of the bridge, the man sounded ecstatic. "Weapons are back online."

"Sir! We're getting an encrypted transmission from the * _UFSS_ _Excelsior,_ I'm patching it on the main com. Audio only." The Com Officer reported, he also sounded thrilled.

" ** _—_** ** _peat…this…lsior….*Kingsbane…copy….epeat…uo….cop….This is Exelsior to Kingsbane….you copy…._** " The voice that came from the speakers within the bridge was frantic, Frank knew he was trying to hail his ship, seeing as how his ship was the only one around (aside from the hostile aliens), the name of which could only be _Kingsbane_. ' _Funny name…_ '

"Shields are going critical!" somebody shouted out the warning, he then elaborated. "We're down 3% shield. Hull integrity is down 97%!"

Without wasting time, Frank immediately ordered, "Weapons, target nearest vessels and let loose missile volley. Spread DEW fire to nearby ships, somebody tell me engineering has fixed that coolant leak and why the hell aren't the Frigates deployed?!"

"Sir, the ventral docking bays took damage and the hatches are jammed, we've lost that capability until the mechs can clear it." One console officer informed him, his voice shaky. Frank blanched at that.

"Engineering reports all green!" another Console officer, yelled out. It was quite the mess they'd found themselves in, when the sit-rep came in, Frank had shook his head when he heard the main FTL drive had sprung a leak, ' _Give me a good old fashioned infantry squad…_ ' a stray thought entered his mind.

"Somebody fire already!"Frank shouted at the crew. Moments later he could see trails of hot blazing laser beams forging their way across the vast distance between his ship and the few smaller ones that were nearer. In space the distance between ships are counted in the hundreds of thousands of kilometers, that in itself on a planet's surface is quite daunting, whereas in space it has been proven time and again that such distance is like a stone throw away from hitting your noggin.

To Frank's surprise and the relative gasps from his crew, the DEW trails did more damage than their missile volley. Even more surprising was the hostile's lack of energy shields, ' _Okay…that's weird._ ' He thought before ordering his com officer to clear up interference on the _Excelsior_ 's incoming transmission.

"I'm on it, sir!" The Com Officer got busy flicking through his console. Unlike the sleek, white holographic display system on board their cousins' ships in the Consortium, the Federation still has bulky terminals with _actual_ keyboards that, although more streamlined, was still considered antique by modern standards. The bridge was also of grey dull colors but was lined with lens flare lighting systems currently saturating the bridge in blood red light.

"Sir, weapons are effective against enemy hull. No shield system detected…aside from the strange anomaly surrounding the alien vessels." The Tac Officer reported.

"Tell me something I don't know." Frank, to be _frank_ , found this 'no dialogue tree' thing to be both exciting and rather innovative, although he still has a bad feeling about all this, he decided not to let it bother him too much.

"Um…the hostiles have some type of kinetic shielding?" the Tac Officer asked nervously shrugging and had a confused look on his face.

"I didn't…wait did you say kinetic shielding?"

"Yes, sir. The computer conducted a deep scan of their systems a while ago, it showed me the results of its…probing."

"Send that to me." Frank frowned as the man sent him the relevant data. His small console attached to the right arm of his chair pinged. Looking through the data he frowned even further, "Just what the hell kind of idiot uses an inefficient—"

There was an explosion which caused the ship to reel the left nearly sending him flying off of his command chair, "Report!"

"Sir, we've lost engines two and four!" Came the response, "and engineering bay is closing bulkheads in sectors 9 and 10. We've got radiation leak…"

" ** _Kingsbane this is Excelsior! Do you read me? We are on our way…hold on!_** " The speakers blurted out the voice of the _Excelsior_ 's com officer, there was concern in that tone of his, Frank wondered who was the CO of that ship.

"Sir…we're dead in the water and that explosion took out weapons systems." Silence reigned on the bridge. Frank suddenly felt a wave of dread and awful feeling that permeated the air. His heart thumped calmly in his chest before it raced, not knowing why he suddenly began feeling a sense of fear.

"Enemy ships have ceased fire." Indeed the alien vessels had stopped firing, a few of the smaller ships, frigates if his estimates in size were right, surrounded his ship. Frank knew this was it, he was either going to be blasted to kingdom come or he'd be fighting boarders. From the looks of it though, the latter option was likely.

"How far out is the _Excelsior_?" Frank's question was directed to no one in particular but the Tac Officer responded.

"At max speed, they'll be here within three hours." Not one of the men on the bridge liked those odd. A lot can happen in three hours but they can surely hold out until reinforcements arrive or they'd take the enemy with them to hell if the fates decree it. Frank on the other hand was anxious to know who it was that had attacked his ship, also, he wanted to live long enough to know why he was separated from the rest of his battlegroup. He got that strange feeling of wrongness again but it faded as soon as it came.

Sure he felt great, having to experience an awesome virtual reality game in all its splendor, including the new features such as feeling pain, smell and so on but now that he thought about things, in became a little clear to him that it seemed all too real. The NPCs were all acting more than what they were scripted to do…then there was that thing with the dialogue…there should have been a timed dialogue as stated in the announcements and game development stages the demo trailers showed.

Frank thought about all this and like a man, shoved it all to the back of his mind, he had a ship to run.

"Recall the remainder of our fighter squadrons and prepare to repel boarders. I want all crewmen to arm themselves. What troops do we have on board?" The Commodore barked out orders and inquired at the same time.

His XO turned to him, blood on his uniform from a split lip and bump on his right forehead told Frank the man had been ragdolled by the ship's sudden lurch. "Our troop complement consists of the 45th Fall-Battalion, the 3rd Mechanized Division and the entire 66th Regiment from the Regular Army, in all about 2000 men under the command of Major-General Mark Anthony."

"Spread them throughout the ship, I want heavy weapons covering key intersections and bulkheads. This ship cannot fall into enemy hands whether known or unknown…make these aliens pay for every inch they cross." Frank's voice was low and he spoke in a near growl, his eyes burning with fury, he always wanted to be an actor but this is as close as he'll get to the real thing.

* * *

 **Orbit around Thessia**

The unidentified dreadnought that had appeared above the homeworld of the the galaxy's most influential and _beloved_ species, the Asari, was now crippled, its tough shielding system and its overall hull armor had buckled under the awesome firepower of the Asari defense fleet. Okay maybe the fact that it was caught completely off guard helped hasten its defeat, but who's gonna know.

Matriarch Esani V'Tera was now the overall commander of the fleet when her predecessor's ship was cleaved in three pieces by the enemy's directed energy weapons. How these aliens had managed to create a large workable DEW was lost on her but their being so close to the Asari homeworld had set off a chain reaction that could have been avoided if not for one panic stricken maiden.

Esani sighed and watched the screen as it showed a few of the forty shuttles assigned to board the alien ship. The ship itself was an ugly piece of work, all dark green color, the frame was an elongated rectangle with several box like structures attached to the main hull, the scans the VI conducted showed the bridge to be at the front of the ship. ' _Whoever designed that ship was either drunk or an idiot_.' She thought in amusement then got her serious game face back on.

"Matriarch the shuttles have attached themselves to the alien ship's hull. The boarding teams are drilling now." A young asari officer, a matron, informed the elder asari. Esani nodded.

' _This is it…we get to see who these trespassers are…and if at all possible broker a ceasefire before this escalates._ ' She hoped.

 **On board the alien ship…**

 **[Matron Rani Nako/Occupation: Asari Commando]**

Rani watched the wall they'd drilled through collapse inward, she immediately readied her weapon, a Mk. III Mattock, an odd choice for an Asari but all she can say to that is that the weapon had a sentimental value. No doubt her father's influence on her upbringing, she shook her head to get back into the situation at hand. They were entering into unknown territory, her team's mission; infiltrate the alien's bridge and capture the commander.

The team carefully snaked its way through the corridor, when they rounded a corner, the Asari stopped to stare at the wall in front of them. There was a sign that read; **UFSS KINGSBANE**. It wasn't the actual words that were written that caused them pause, it was the fact that it was written in _English_ that got them to reconsider their options. If the walls of this ship had written texts in _English_ then it stands to reason that the ship…may belong to humans. ' _But that doesn't make any sense…_ ' Rani's brow furrowed in confusion and anger, it didn't make any sense that this ship would belong to humans but if it did then the Asari Republics would face a lot of political backlash from the Systems Alliance, seeing as how the Asari fired first, an odd thing to happen to a _diplomatic_ and _peaceful_ species.

On the other hand, the Republics can just cover the whole thing up. 'No problems here' sort of thing. Rani didn't approve of that method, damn her human father for instilling his morality onto her fragile asari brain. She smiled at that.

"Rani!" One of the commandos hissed at the distracted matron, bringing her attention back to the situation at hand.

"Sorry."

Not wanting to waste time, the team forged onwards, now following the signs and words on the walls. They didn't need to guess their way to the bridge. It was eerily creepy how the texts were so close to the ones on human ships, Rani shuddered a she walked by a door. If they had opened said door, the heavy machine guns on the other side would have shredded them, however they didn't so they were saved a gruesome death.

"Contact!" The lead asari yelled out in alarm as she dived to the side and took cover behind a conveniently placed table. The others in the team stumbled and crawled away from the line of fire as the aliens began letting loose a stream of plasma bolts and laser fire. The asari were in awe of such tech but had no time to admire the enemy's weapons, unless they wanted to see how effective it was against their kinetic and biotic barriers.

"Rani throw a singularity at those assholes!" the team's commander shouted to her. The matron complied and her body glowed blue, she stepped out of cover and launched the dark blue ball of death at the clustered enemy formation before quickly taking cover again.

"They're human!" Rani shouted that bit of information to her team. They all looked at her incredulously before the commander peeked out from her cover in time to see a bunch of humans in bulky grey and black armor floating in the air.

"She's right!" The commander confirmed it, then quickly pulling up her Avenger rifle, she dropped the two guys floating in the air and the three who were nearer to the ground. "Take them out!"

The six asari, including Rani, broke cover and took aim. There were only five more of the strange humans left, they were scrambling to get to cover but one of them got caught in the singularity and was promptly shot in the head by the asari's sniper.

"Nice one!" a commando complimented.

"Stow it!" their commander berated them. "Advance and fire. Move!"

The asari commandos slowly crept forward laying down suppressive fire at the humans who were firing blindly in their direction hitting nothing. ' _I've seen Alliance marines who can shoot better than that…_ ' Rani reflected on the poor marksmanship of these humans. Whoever they were, they must either be pirates or mercs. But she'd seen mercs with better aim than this and her father was a merc. She found it comical and would have laughed if it weren't for the seriousness of the situation. When they were halfway to their enemy's entrenched position, they could hear the human's converse above the loud racketing noise of mass effect fire and laser and plasma sizzling. Rani caught the tail end of one of the human's conversation and immediately growled.

"… _lue alien chicks, dude! If we get lucky I'd like to tap some of that blue ass!_ " was the words that came from the right side. Sparking her biotics, Rani threw another singularity towards the source of that voice and a human began floating into the air. He frantically gripped at the end of the table he was hiding behind but was gutted by mass effect incendiary rounds, courtesy of Rani.

A commando near her gave her a strange look and she just shrugged saying, "What?"

" _Goddammit! All units converge on the bridge! I repeat converge on the bridge!_ " the loudspeaker (PA) system broke through the firefight unknowingly informing the asari of their plan. The speakers were still on when they heard the human on the other end of it mutter, " _Who the fuck taught these fuckers how to shoo-_ "

" _Lieutenant! Turn that shit off!_ " The speakers cut off from there as we look back to see the asari commandos navigating their way to their objective.

"They've got to be undermanned in this sector if they're requesting reinforcements." An asari pointed out, it was the sniper.

"Press forward then," their commander told them as she finished off the last remaining human. Rani pitied these humans, going against biotics wasn't an easy thing to do.

For about two minutes they fought their way past what looked like the crew until they reached a large bulkhead, most likely the bridge was on the other side. Rani checked her corners for any stragglers and seeing no immediate danger reformed with her team outside the bulkhead.

"So how are we going to do this?" one asari asked the commander. This one held a shotgun.

"Did you bring the explosives?" the commander shot back.

With a grin, the shotgun wielding asari psycho, handed over ten blocks of Grade A military explosives. Similar in shape to what was humanity's C4, this explosive utilized micro-mass effect fields that upon detonation would result in several singularities that…in theory would tear apart any structure. Of course the damn thing was still experimental and today would be its first use.

"Um…is that thing safe?" Rani nervously shifted backwards away from the commander who stared at her for a while. The sniper and the other asari (aside from the commander and the shotgun wielder) stepped back a little following Rani.

"What explosive in this universe is _safe_?" the commander snorted and set about placing them across the bulkhead. When that was done they all took a considerable distance…about three rooms away from the bridge…and then the commander tilted her head slightly to the left and said, "No pain, no gain."

"I'm willing to bet the humans will be in pain…a lot." Shotgun girl grinned evilly unnerving Rani in the process. ' _That bitch is crazy_.' She reasoned then mentally sighed as she remembered that the asari in question had a Krogan for a father, of course she'd be crazy.

When the asari commando pressed the detonation on her omni-tool the room they were in shook under the pressure. Waiting for a bout thirty seconds they moved again and their jaws dropped upon seeing the scene in front of them. The entire section where the bridge was supposed to be….was not there anymore, it looked as if something huge had up and tore off the front of the ship. Somehow the area they were in was already pressurized which suggested that a force-field of some kind had enveloped the torn off section. Jagged edges and burning hull was all that remained.

Rani looked back at her commander and screamed, "What in the Goddess' name did you do!?"

" _Free—what the fuck!_ " A voice came from behind them and they all whipped their guns that way to find about thirty or so humans wearing bulky matte black armor that looked way more advanced and dangerous that the ones worn by the first ones encountered.

" _Sarge! What the fuck happened to the bridge!?_ " Rani couldn't help but smirk playfully at the faltering high-pitched tone that came from one the humans. He sounded young, maybe he was in his teens. Poor kid.

"So how do we do this?" Sniper girl eyed the humans, searching for any weaknesses but found none, her HUD also placed strange energy readings coming from the human's armors.

"We've literally been backed into a corner…so I guess we either surrender or fight." The commander voiced their options none of which would end well.

" _We have you surrounded, xenos. Surrender now and we'll make you pay for what you did to the Commodore!_ " The asari commandos and the humans were in a standoff and it wasn't pretty, one wrong move and the asari die.

It was a tense moment where Rani managed to spot a few of the unmasked humans eying their bodies with a lot more interest that what was necessary. ' _I'd rather die than end up a sex slave_!' she growled and her biotics flared.

One of the humans saw this and was about to fire when there was a shout. The asari and the humans kept their weapons trained on each other but their heads turned to the source. It was a human dressed in black with gold trim lines across his crumpled uniform, he had dark hair slicked back, his facial expression was one of anger but there was some confusion in there. He was bleeding from the head, a minor injury.

" _Corporal, secure the Commodore!_ " The sergeant, from the three chevron symbol on his right shoulder pauldron, barked at the human with the high-pitched voice.

Said human cautiously moved closer to the Commodore who was eyeing the asari with curiosity and confusion. In fact, despite the angry scowls sent their way by these humans, the asari could pick out the confused looks on the faces of the ones without breather helmets.

" _Have you ever seen anything like these xenos before, sarge?_ " another human, one in full helmet and armor, asked his superior, his voice was metallic sort of like a turian.

" _Who cares?! I say we shoot out their knees and then fuck 'em!_ " There was a wave of evil chuckling and sneers from the humans, Rani felt her blood boil and her biotics flared again.

A few of the human soldiers' trigger fingers twitched and were on the verge of firing before the Commodore, a rather young looking human male from what the asari could glean, shouted out orders for the soldiers to hold fire.

" _Keep your weapons on them but do NOT fire._ " The human's superior officer growled out his command eyeing each man, daring them to question his order. " _Now…I've noticed something peculiar…and no gentlemen, it's not the fact that we have sexy blue alien women in front of us_."

Rani's eye twitched slightly at that comment. She wasn't the only one to have heard and understood all of what the humans were saying. In her case she understood _English_ , it being her first language she can thank her father for that. The others meanwhile had their translators on so they understood everything and to be honest she was a little surprised at how calm and composed the asari maniac wielding the shotgun was.

A brief glance at the shotgun girl however, and she spotted some very disturbing shivering of the woman's shoulders. A sliver of an evil smile playing at the edge of her lips, her eyes burning in a murderous rage, one more slip up from the humans and she'd get every one of the commandos killed…or worse. They were too outnumbered and the humans had spread out rendering a singularity ineffective.

" _No sir,_ " the commodore continued. " _The thing is that…and even I didn't believe it either at first…these aliens seem to understand us._ "

Rani's eyes widen, as did the other commandos, this was noticed by the human commodore and a grin spread across his face. " _See boys…you don't get that reaction unless you're hiding something and I'm willing to bet these ladies are hiding a lot. So what say you ladies to a parley_?"

The asari commander held her aim but this time squarely at the commodore, her action caused the humans to step forward. Their bulky weapons buzzing and sizzled with chaotic energy, she looked to her left and whispered, "Rani…can you talk to them?"

"Sure, commander." Rani whispered back. Her eyes never leaving the humans, especially that commodore, there was something about him that didn't make sense.

* * *

 **[Frank Amar]**

When the aliens had breached and boarded his ship, Frank had turned over command of the bridge to his XO and took a security detail to head over to the armory, leaving behind the bridge. Imagine his surprise when he returned only to be caught in a frigging explosion that nearly took his head off, luckily it did not. His security detail weren't so lucky on the other hand, Philip had been sucked into a blue vortex along with Tim and Harold was torn apart by whatever gravitational pull the multiple vortexes were exerting, leaving only Frank alive.

If whatever those things were, had not dissipated, then frank would have been killed…that much was certain. Therein lay the problem, from what he'd seen of the demo vids, bleeding in game was still a work in progress, at least it was for the player character. NPCs would still bleed but not him…so when banged his head pretty hard and landed on the ground with a thud, he noticed he was bleeding from a cut on his head. His hair matted against his skull.

What transpired next was rather bizarre but the way his men were talking confirmed a little of his suspicions that this had become all too real. First he was bleeding, secondly this was a species of aliens he'd never seen before in the game, and since they were supposed to be playing the re-imagining first Flagship game, he reasoned that no new add-on races would be…well…added.

He watched curiously as the blue alien women sent glances and scowled at him and his men. He can hardly blame them, the guys were either feeling horny or angry and the two together are not a good combination…like ever. He listened intently to what the blue women were saying but he could only make out what sounded like a melody.

' _Huh…if I had to guess, their language almost sounds…musical_.' He smiled inwardly but maintained a grim expression, angry but not too much.

Next thing he knows one of the alien girls started speaking…in _English_ no less…and with a very sexy Japanese accent. How did he know that? Well suffice it to say he spent the better part of his teen years in the land of the rising sun, alongside Luther whose late father was stationed there. In fact both their fathers were in the military serving as advisors to the JSDF. So he was partial to the accent of that particular Asiatic nation.

The accent, however, was further highlighted by the blue woman's melodious voice. " **You** **are** **humans**? **Why** **are** **you** **attacking** **our** **world**?" She demanded. Her tone of voice stern and eyes burned with wildfire, also he could tell she was uncomfortable with all of the Fallen staring like sex-starved wolves at her and her friends. The only ones he knew would actually focus on the threat they presented would be himself, the sergeant and four others.

Her words took some time for the humans of the Federation to consider when it hit them. They shifted glances at one another but kept their aim true. "What the hell just happened?!" One of the Fallen whispered to the trooper next to him only to get a shrug in response.

"You speak _English_?" It was an obvious question, but he needed to ask. Also it bothered him and most certainly the others as well that these aliens knew what species they were but not the other way around.

Now it was the blue woman's turn to look a little shocked, not too much though. She composed herself and cleared her throat to speak, a strangely human thing to do in certain circumstances, and to see an alien do it. " **Yes, I do. I will ask again, why are you here? How did you get here?** "

"Weren't you just asking us why we ' _attacked'_ your planet a while ago?" Frank narrowed his eyes, the sudden change in questions proved these aliens had somehow panicked when his ship arrived…wherever the hell this was.

" **Irrelevant. We have control here…not you**." She said firmly, her tone venomous and hatred dripped with every word or was it a superiority complex? Frank couldn't be sure.

"I say we cap the bitches…even if they're dead we can still have some fun with their corpses." A Fallen Corporal suggested with a sneer. His eyes filled with evil glee, that sort of person annoyed and disgusted Frank and would have reprimanded him on the spot if not for what he saw through the hole in his ship. A rather big hole, if one could call the front section of his ship torn from its seams, a _hole_.

"Well I'll be damned." The sergeant let out a low whistle. Beyond the damaged and crippled Federation ship, beyond even the alien fleet surrounding said ship, beyond the planet but visible to the naked eye, was he long awaited **UFSS Excelsior** bringing the other three battlecruisers. "Aren't they a sight for sore eyes."

Frank could hardly agree since they were still outnumbered by these aliens. He just hoped nothing happens to jeopardize his life and his ship, then again it would seem his ship may be beyond repair but he didn't want to think about that. Not while there was a chance to set things straight.

* * *

 **[Rani Nako]**

" _Retrieval Team abort mission! We've got enemy reinforcements inbound._ " The message rang out in their earpieces as the commandos contemplated on what to do next. They were trapped here and they knew it. Cut off from escape their only option was to fight and they may not make it out…even with their biotics.

"Shit! What do we do?!" Shotgun girl's eyes nervously flickered between each of the humans who were eyeing her and her team with lust and a small amount of hatred and lots of anger. The commodore on the other hand looked eerily calm and collected and only gave them a curious look, nothing lecherous in his eyes whatsoever…not yet at least.

"Easy, Lena." Her commander spoke to her, Rani could feel the small amount of emphatic influence emanating from the elder matron. "We can still get out of this…" she turned to Rani. "Tell him that we're willing to parley only if he dismisses his men."

"Ma'am you realize he won't agree to that, right?" Rani raised a questioning eyebrow. Her CO shrugged and replied,

"Heh, can't hurt to try."

Rani sighed and turned her gaze back to the Commodore. She started to speak but was interrupted by the PA system coming online and a voice spluttered out.

" **This is** ** _Excelsior_** **to Kingsbane…we've arrived, just hold on a few more minutes…what the fuck! Kingsbane! Do you copy? If you do—** " The voice was cut off and a scuffle could be heard. Suddenly another much louder voice got on the horn and damn near shouted the asari's head off.

" **THIS IS CAPTAIN ERIC HARTMAN OF THE UFSS** ** _EXCELSIOR_** **. TO ALL ALIEN VESSELS WITHIN THE VICINITY, CEASE AND DESIST THE BOARDING OF THE FLAGSHIP UFSS** ** _KINGSBANE_** **OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE ON THE PLANET.** "

Rani hoped the humans' allies wouldn't actually fire on helpless innocents, ' _Okay…maybe some have killed a lot of people…but they were soldiers and law agents ensuring public safety and then there were the actual innocents as well as visitors to the planet._ ' She said in her mind, mostly to calm herself. She also took solace in that the human and the alien ships were still outnumbered but from what she had see of the vids, these humans' ships (ugly as they were) held considerable firepower with the ability to bypass their kinetic barriers.

" _Listen up ladies, I would suggest you surrender now while you still can._ " The asari turned their attention to the Commodore who shifted embarrassingly under their intense gaze. " _Like I said before, you understand what I'm saying and you've even shown that you speak_ our _language so…put your weapons down and we can talk this out, like civilized people._ "

"I'll believe you're civilized if that pig stops staring at my boobs. If he doesn't I'm going to gut him open." Lena spat out her threat flaring her biotics. By now it was becoming clear to Rani that these humans had never seen biotics before, it wasn't obvious at first but each time one of the asari activated their biotics the humans would flinch and instinctively adjust their aim at the offending asari. Maybe that was their way out, she wondered.

" _Uh…what did she say?_ " the commodore looked at Lena then at Rani, hoping for a translation it seemed. Rani simply shook her head.

"Tell him to dismiss his men. If he does that then we can talk about a possible ceasefire." The asari commander repeated her previous order before they were rudely interrupted. Rani was still not sure that will work but they got limited options so…meh.

* * *

 **[Frank Amar]**

" **We'll talk…but not before you send away your men.** " The alien woman, which Frank had decided to tag as _Translator_ , spoke again. Despite the warning given out to her people by his reinforcements, he could tell the blue aliens had confidence in their numbers.

Understandably, the Fallen soldiers all gripped their weapons tighter and growled menacingly. Frank raised his hand to stop them from reacting too violently, one thing he knows for sure was that the crew and even the troopers stationed on this ship revered him…for whatever reason he couldn't find out…yet. He had planned on trying to find out why just after he resolved this conflict and sort things out before they escalated.

But for now, he had to contend with a group of heavily armed blue alien women, no doubt they were lethal...perhaps in other areas as well but he'd rather not broach that subject. However, their willingness to talk could go a long way in securing a ceasefire and let him get his bearings back in order.

"Fine." Frank conceded.

"Commodore! I advise against such action." The sergeant complained whilst his trigger finger itched to blow up that xeno bitch who, through some bewitching means has somehow bewitched the great Commodore Frank Amar. "We burn them, burn them until not even ash remains."

"That's not a very nice way to treat our guests…is it?" Frank queried smirking for no reason. He frowned at this. ' _Huh…for a moment there I thought I lost my sanity._ ' He shook his head trying to clear it of the sudden pang of dizziness.

"Sir. We can ta—"

The sergeant was interrupted by the Commodore who shouted at him, it was highly uncharacteristic but then again the man was an odd maverick. He lived by different rules and his exploits in the Federation Navy is enough to earn him medals three lifetimes over.

Then again, Frank wasn't aware of the extent to which his _character_ was famed within the Federation navy. Not his fault.

"You are all dismissed, sergeant that is all. I only want Corporal Hess and Miller to stay behind if that will ease you up." Frank left no room for discussion and with clear reluctance the Fallen dispersed but remained near enough that they'd respond to any distress. When his men had all left the room except for two, who stood on either side of him, Frank turned his attention back to the alien women, specifically the one who spoke English. Now that they weren't shooting at each other, he could clearly see a lot of differences between the women, although they looked blue, there was a variation to the tinge and actual color. For example, the _Translator_ was a lighter shade of blue, the others were either purple, light purple, dark blue or otherwise.

"So ladies, where were we?" Frank gave them a broad and friendly smile, hopefully he can defuse this volatile situation before it got out of hand than it already is.

* * *

 **[Eric Hartman/Rank: Captain/Race: Human/Affiliation: United Federation]**

"Have we received confirmation that the Commodore is still alive?" Eric impatiently waited for the reply tapping his foot rapidly.

"Yes, sir." The ensign unfortunate enough to be reporting directly to the Captain nodded in conjunction with his answer. "There is also something else…"

"Well?"

 _"_ The information we're getting from our scanners indicate an exotic graviton matter surrounding the alien ships, there is a field of something that is disrupting our grav sensors from getting an accurate reading and the planet itself is causing a few of our other sensors to go haywire." His ensign informed him, the Captain pondered this for a moment when his thoughts were interrupted.

"Sir…what are your orders?"

For a moment Eric, a veteran tactician and moderate strategist with a penchant for dramatic and unorthodox fleet maneuvers, took a moment of silence to ponder on what options were open to him. On the one hand he could just wait here, out of harms reach, and on the other he could launch a rescue…risky as it is with a considerable number of alien ships outnumbering his meager flotilla.

"Send word to the rest of the flotilla, deploy their squadrons and escorts. We're getting our men back…" Risky as the path goes then, Eric hoped his decision is the right one, but just to be on the safe side he added, "oh and bring up Commander Hendricks to the bridge, I've got a job for him."

"Of course sir, right away." The ensign saluted and went about completing this task. He also blanched when he heard the commander's name, the man was a raving lunatic. Given the chance, he'd blow the damn planet to pieces. Luckily he's not the one liable to write a five thousand page report, explaining in great detail the reasons behind letting the Commander loose and of the damages he will likely cause...to the enemy and to his own allies.

* * *

 ***[United Federal Navy/Ship Database]**

 **UFSS Excelsior**

 **Class: Medium Battle-Cruiser (** ** _MBC-1290-323-19987_** **)** ** _Avenger_** **  
Configuration: 2.5 km in length, 805 m in height, 955 m in width (957-across the beams)  
Armament: [Classified]x2, [Classified]x20, PDTs x150 (from bow to stern)  
Additions: 4 Ventral Docking Bays (** ** _Under belly hangars for 4 Heavy Corvettes_** **),1000 ship crew, 2500 Troop complement (** ** _9_** ** _th_** ** _Fall-Battalion and 76_** ** _th_** ** _Ranger Regiment_** **), Total personnel; 3500 (+ 410 Corvette Crew)**

 **UFSS Kingsbane**

 **Class: Heavy Battle-Cruiser (MBC** ** _-1290-340-10983_** **)** ** _Coordinating Punishment_** **  
Configuration: 3.8 km in length, 1.5 km in height, 1 km in width (1.02 km across the beams)  
Armament: [Weapons systems ****_Beyond Top Secret_** **]  
Additions: 2 Ventral Docking Bays (** ** _Under belly hangar for two Heavy Frigates_** **), 2106 ship crew, 2000 Troop Complement (** ** _45_** ** _th_** ** _Fall-Battalion, 3_** ** _rd_** ** _Mechanized Division and_** **_66_** ** _th_** ** _Regiment-Federal Regulars_** **) Total personnel; 4106 (+ 1040 Frigate Crew)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay so I got a rather interesting and informative review for that request I made earlier and I'd like to thank "The Royal Protector" for your insight and I'll be sure to use that info, somewhere later on if you'll permit.**

 **For the Guest: (I know answering this is a little late but...)  
The data banks scenario is a great idea...didn't think about it honestly. As for the leadership of the 'fleet', I've changed it to a flotilla and changed Luther's rank to Rear Admiral so he's leading it and reduced the size of the fleets since a fleet of cruisers seen in ME as 'dreadnoughts' would just be overkill. As for the part where the teams facing off against one another? We'll see.**

 **Without further ado I now turn your attention to our third main character, not the 'lead' character mind you but still important.**

 **On a side note: I'm currently blocked as to how to write out the next chapter of Expansion Edition but fear not I'll continue that...as soon as I get my life in order and adjust to the demands of my new job. Life socks...good thing we have this website to relieve some of that stress, am I right?**

 **(Cricket chirping)**

 **Oookay...moving on!**

* * *

 _The Gerkan race were a proud and warlike people who conquered countless worlds in the 50,000 years since their spacefaring age had begun, then in one fell swoop the entirety of the race itself was brought to its knees facing certain death at the hands of its rivals of unknown origin. Managing to survive with only 0.1% of their species left, the Gerkan sought refuge at the edge of the galaxy cutting themselves off from the rest of the galaxy. Slowly they rebuilt their lost civilization and in time their numbers grew but they had been humbled and though still nurturing their martial traditions to the point of religious fervor, the race overall became more peaceful and were regarded by humanity as a whole as a race of 'wise alien warrior monks'._

 _-Flagship Species Catalog._

* * *

 **[Name: James Kanton/ Rank: Kai-Sho/ Race: Gerkan]**

James had always found the **_Gerkan_** race to be fascinating in their approach to tradition, he may not look it, but he was a stickler for traditions and customs, coming from a family that still values old traditions and still practiced customs of their ancestors. He had been told that his family were the descendants of a great warrior clan hailing from ancient Earth, from a nation steeped in mysticism and great rivalries between clans. A land where the sun rises and makes its journey westward…

 _'Wait a minute…why am I thinking of that….ugghh my head…'_ James blinked twice rubbing his eyes, he felt his leathery skin grating against his sensitive eyes as he carefully opened them. The first thing he saw was an unfamiliar face, an alien and utterly menacing face, wide forehead with no hair to speak of, except for the spiny thorns on his chin. He moved his fingers and touched the chin spines flicking the tip of one of them and getting an odd prickly sensation out of it.

' _Weird…_ ' He smiled, revealing two sets of razor sharp canines and surprisingly human like teeth. ' _I guess shaving is out the window…so to speak._ ' It took a few more minutes for him to realize he was standing in front of a mirror confirming the face in front of him was indeed his, he also saw he was wearing some type of tight-skin suit that covered his body from the neck down to his feet, except his hands.

It was thrilling to know that he was actually feeling everything, heck! he was even smelling what smelled like cologne or something similar. He then stared at his hands, which had only two large digits and an opposable thumb, his skin was indeed leathery like that of a dinosaur if his animal biology lessons were anything to go by. By the time he was done examining himself, and admiring the well toned musculatures adorning his alien body, James walked out of the bathroom it seemed, and right into a wall.

Rubbing his face, he grumbled irritably as he turned left continuing on his way before he was so rudely interrupted by that wall. He muttered a few curses before he reached the end of the hallway, dark and scary lit only dimly by low intensity plasma lights. His feet heavy, thudding on the metal floor, the hallway was plastered with wall paintings depicting the history of the Gerkan. Not paying too much attention to pictures themselves, James palmed the wall in front of him and a line appeared outlining a door. Said door split open down the middle and slid in opposite directions.

Stepping through he found himself in a large open room, there was a bed in the middle, which looked suspiciously like a water bed found in one of those sleazy sex motels he's heard of. ' _Don't wanna know what goes on there._ ' He decided. He saw a few other stuff besides the bed, a hover chair sitting in front of a computer console with integrated holographic interface, above which was a large bladed weapon, probably a decoration. After all as an officer in the military, he was entitled to some luxuries, James reasoned, ' _if that elaborately decorated wicked looking body armor is anything to go by._ '

At the other end of the room, in the lonesome corner, was a mannequin wearing a splendid set of armor, it was a shiny metallic black lined with red and gold trimlines across the shoulder pauldrons, greaves, with the right side of the breast plate lined in gold accented lines. The red accented lines were more dominant and with the helmet completely obscuring the wearer's face, giving it an overall intimidating look. At least to him it looked fearsome, add that to his character's height and any foe he would face will likely flee in fear.

' _Yeah…I doubt that, but hey, I'm at least allowed some flights of fantasy, aren't I_?'

"I wonder what—" James was jerked off his feet and sent hurtling to the wall on his left hitting his head hard then dropping to the floor with a bang. He grunted painfully as he reared his head up, eye pupils narrowing into a slit, and blood rushed to his head, anger floating dangerously over the top, threatening to break an invisible dam. "Argghh, what the fuck was that?!"

He grabbed his aching head and managed to stumble back to his feet staggering towards where he thought the door was. Suddenly a voice cut in, sounding pissed off and concerned at the same time. " _Kai-Sho tama, are you alright?!_ "

"I'm fine." James replied with a groan, after it took a moment for him to realize the voice was addressing him. "What happened?"

" _Unknown ships have engaged our flotilla. We were still affecting repairs to the damaged engines when they fired. Our warriors are dealing with them now as I speak._ " The voice informed him.

"Damaged engines?" James asked as he nursed the small bump on his left forehead. His rough leathered fingers rubbing it gently. But his curiosity surfaced, after all he'd just been dumped into his character not too long ago after the race selection process. ' _Won't those idiots be surprised when they see me._ ' He inwardly laughed in anticipation of seeing the expressions on his friends' faces when he meets them…if ever.

" _Yes, Kai-Sho tama. Upon exiting hyperspace, our main engine suffered a massive and fatal failure. Our engineers immediately tackled the problem in its infancy but then the unknowns showed themselves._ " Was the voice's answer, James determined that it was an older Gerkan, probably a wizened and hardened veteran from the raspy but booming voice he was hearing.

It wasn't that long ago when he woke up so he put together the math concerning his time of _awakening_ and the time he was sent flying across the room and came up with a singular conclusion that he was only here for about 15 minutes since the game started. And yet he was already in his first battle, a grin spread across his face, contorting in a sinister smile that doubled his already menacing alien face. ' _Whoever it is that attacked me…I accept your challenge._ '

Confident in his skills as a naval commander, in game only of course, James hurriedly made his way to the ship's bridge. For the next four minutes he took multiple turns down corridors and into rooms…he was in short, lost. Luckily the crew were very helpful in showing him the right way.

* * *

 **Above unknown world**

James finally found his way to the bridge of the ship, which was located deep within the vessel itself, situated in a large spherical room that encased the bridge on a suspended gyroscope system. Thus when the ship moves around, the bridge would stay relatively _upright_ , quite redundant when in space, or the fact that the ship utilizes artificial gravity but as military doctrine dictates, and this was copied from the humans, no less, during battle communication was conducted via internal coms whilst the entire ship was depressurized. That means no atmosphere within the ship, also effectively turning off the gravity.

Upon seeing the _Kai-Sho_ walk into the bridge, the crew stood at attention and bowed reverently. James could practically feel the respect of the crew oozing into his ego, swelling with his own pride, he strode up to the middle of the bridge where a hover chair waited for him. He sat down on the hard, cold metal and a tall and rather bulky alien walked up to his left side.

" _Kai-Sho_ tama, it is good you are here. We are in dire need of your guidance." The Gerkan bowed his head both as a sign of respect and as a salute. "The unknowns have retreated back to the safety of the planet's orbit surrounded by several others of its kind. We have tried to match the ships to our computer database but have come up with nothing."

Half the things the Gerkan said didn't make much sense but at least he got the gist of it so replying, James said, "Why did they retreat in the first place?"

"Our escorts decloaked and fired upon their ships. A pitiful display…despite the sting of their weapons." The Gerkan inclined his head to his right and a holographic 3D rendering of the Gerkan flotilla appeared. Some distance away were what appeared to be debris if James had to guess.

"I take it those are the remains of whatever ships they sent." It was stated without emotion, and even James found it disturbing that he could talk like that without feeling anything. He chalked it up to this being only a game.

"Indeed, Kai-Sho tama." The Gerkan nodded. His faceplate hiding any facial expressions he might have had, but James could feel the alien smirking with pride. He admitted he had to hold back a smirk of his own. His ships were still superior but he'll have his work cut out for him when he meets the Consortium or the **_Jak'Tar_**. He shuddered to think of the damage he'd sustain if he met the latter.

"Has the system been scanned yet?" James inquired, nigh close to demanding but controlled himself, he had no idea why but he suddenly felt the urge to shout or bark out when the Gerkan stuttered then had the audacity to look away and not answering the question. Impatiently, james spoke again, "Well?"

"Erm…uh…our sensors were also damaged." The Gerkan admitted shamefully hanging his head. He expected his liege-lord to berate him for this minor infraction but instead was genuinely surprised to hear the _Kai-Sho_ speak kindly and in understanding.

"I see…well no fault of yours then. I apologize, warrior, for my outburst earlier. I do not feel well rested and hopefully this new threat will be dealt with soon." James said in a sagely manner, inside he was cackling like mad at his acting, ' _oh I am good_!' he laughed internally. "However, I want to know if this is an isolated event or are other ships affected similarly."

"At once, _Kai-Sho tama_." The Gerkan bowed out and disappeared among the crew who rushed about to get to one console or another, or simply moving around checking and comparing readings and other stats on their consoles with those near them. James admired the scene playing out before him, thankful he was living in this day and age that game developers were able to deliver on their promises. Especially with the virtual reality games like this one, but then he started to get this creepy feeling that something was wrong.

He didn't know what or why but he felt a cold shiver run through him causing to shudder involuntarily. "What the heck?" He mumbled.

 **10 minutes later…**

" _Kai-Sho tama_ ," the same Gerkan returned, bowing slightly to James. " _Hei-chō_ Takashi, our Chief Communications Officer has managed to contact the rest of the flotilla…despite the apparent damage to our communications array." The warrior Gerkan mumbled that last part whilst rolling his eyes.

"What was that?" James frowned, he thought he heard that the comms were also damaged. ' _Seriously! How the hell is my ship so beat up?!_ ' He groaned.

"Nothing, _Kai-Sho tama._ " The warrior replied hastily before catching himself and continued at a slower pace. "Do you wish to hear of the _Hei-chō_ 's report?"

"Yes," James nodded as he let his face relax, but remained concerned for some reason. He waited as the Gerkan began his report.

"According to the _Hei_ - _chō_ , the rest of the flotilla were unscathed when exiting hyperspace. So far the engineers are baffled by this and are working to figure out why only this vessel was affected the way it is."

"Is there anything else?"

"None at this moment, _Kai-sho tama_."

James sighed, just under an hour in the game and already he was facing technical diffulties and a hostile alien force…that thought brought him back to reality with a concerned frown. "What of the alien ships? You said they retreated to the relative safety of the planet but not their numbers. You also mentioned they were not in our computer database."

"Indeed, _Kai-Sho tama_." The Gerkan warrior nodded solemnly, he thought back to his earlier report. "From what our Chief Tactician says, the alien vessels are attempting to regroup—"

" _Kai-Isa_ sama," a voice rumbled out causing both James and the warrior he was conversing with to turn their heads in the voice's general direction. It continued, "Sensor readings from the _Ashigan_ have yielded results, displaying it on the main holo-screen now."

James hadn't given orders for sensor readings to the other ships but he liked their initiative. ' _This beats micro-managing an entire fleet._ ' He thought in approval.

The display screen flickered and the information changed but what he saw confused him as well as the _Kai-Isa_. Both looked at one another before turning their attention back to the holo-display. It still showed a 3D map of the system they were currently in and listed the types of celestial bodies within the system, the only habitable planet was currently within their vicinity but what caught James' attention was the large structure at the edge of the system. The scanners read out its properties and it was a staggering 30 km in length and almost as wide and thick. It hung there with a pulsating blue core of dark energy. The gravity readings were also off the charts, he didn't know what that meant but what he knew was that this didn't make any sense.

"What is that?" James wondered out loud.

"We are unsure, _Kai-Sho tama_." The same voice replied almost immediately. "However, the preliminary examination the computers ran have produced the only viable solution it could think of…"

"That is?" The _Kai-Isa_ next to James rubbed his chin flicking his spines with his thumb, a clear sign of awe at the majestic size of whatever that thing was still engraved on his face.

"The structure readings indicate it is some sort of Mass Accelerator, a weapon."

Both commanders contemplated this revelation, James thinking that it was still weird that the thing was even here, perhaps it was a new add-on by the game developers but he doubted it, there would have been an announcement. And then there was the fact that he was experiencing a splitting headache that was causing minor blackouts in his vision, he didn't want to mention this to any one of the crew just yet. The _Kai-Isa_ on the other hand was thinking how such a device could be useful for his people but he knew the decision to approach and haul the damned thing lay with his liege-lord.

" _Kai-Sho tama_!" Another voice yelled out, this time in the opposite direction from where the other had originated, James turned his head that way, now getting used to the title. "The alien vessels have regrouped and are coming towards us…estimates indicate less than thirty cycles before they are within weapons range."

"Good. It's about time we stop all this thinking and get to fighting." James declared standing up from his hover chair. He looked around the bridge as the crew watched him intently. "I don't know who these new enemies are but they can't be any better than the humans and their factions! Nor can they be better than even our most hated rivals, the **_Jak'Tar_**! Hopefully they put up a fight but if they start using underhanded tactics the flotilla has my permission to disengage the _Ronins_."

The _Kai-Isa_ 's eyes widened at that last bit of information. Surely his liege-lord wasn't intending on unleashing weapons of mass destruction on the planet…even if the enemy play an underhanded game that wouldn't warrant such a response but who was he to question the command of a higher authority.

 **30 Cycles later (1 hour later)**

When the alien fleet arrived within weapons range of the flotilla all hell broke loose with two of the escort frigates completely annihilated before they even had a chance to fire. The remaining heavy frigates spread out from incoming missiles sent by the enemy fleet, no sooner had they done so when their previous position lit up in a brilliant display of flashing lights so bright it blotted out the sun for a mere two seconds but the damage would have no doubt been devastating for the frigates. Five corvettes weren't so lucky as they were engulfed by the flames and proceeded to explode and then implode when their antimatter power generators caused miniature black holes for a full minute.

To say that James was pissed off was understatement, he was totally and very, very angry, enough that his hover chair was now nothing more than a pile of scrap metal. The bridge crew were understandably scared, the strength and power behind which he pulverized his chair was nothing short of the legendary tales the crew have heard of him. Of course, James didn't know this.

"Deploy the _Ronin_!" James ordered after his little temper tantrum had run its course. "Make those treacherous _bageru_ pay!"

The _Kai-Isa_ sighed and pitied the aliens. For when a _Ronin_ was deployed onto a battlefield there was nothing short of a _Nutcracker_ that could stop the beast. "You heard him! Deploy the _Ronin_! Have the corvettes protect its descent, deploy a frigate screen and someone acquire targets and fire the main lances!" The flagship fired its main weapons, four brilliant beams of pure crimson red rays of death carved a sizable number of enemy ships causing massive damage but even then its own shields was being put under pressure. The Flagship's name, if James had anything to say about it (oh wait, he did!) was _Doragon,_ which translates to Dragon..obvious much?

From underneath the large flagship of the flotilla, something detached itself, arms as long as an average cruiser, legs just as long and torso that was covered heavily in metallic armor. The _Ronin_ was an adaptation of the human's piloted mechs that belonged to the Consortium, except where the humans piloted their mechs, the Gerkan took a step further and gave it life. It was a living sentient being capable of untold amounts of destruction, when standing to its full height it was a staggering 2km tall metal giant and was armed with twin lancers and a beam _Anatak._ Its antimatter core powers its very being and can use that same power to destroy entire worlds, this was in effect was what James had been aiming for.

In this regard, James' reasoning was twofold, one was that he wanted to actually make these treacherous fools pay for destroying his already limited number of ships and two is that he just wanted to see the _Ronin_ in action…it is by far his favorite mech in the entire Flagship series. The mechs were able to destroy entire fleets on their own and with support can destroy two or more fleets and can even go toe-to-toe with the largest **_Jak'Tar_** dreadnoughts.

The alien ships, numbering over fifty, shifted their attention from the cruiser escorts and their frigate and corvette escorts to the large metal beast. Its body was bulky and had on what looked like ancient armor, its head was adorned on both sides with grotesque horns that just screamed _'monster'_. James sighed with relief when he saw the _Ronin_ 's shield flare up against the kinetic impacts of the alien's MACs, a pitiful yet annoying weapon. It fired at a ridiculous pace and dealt out minor damage but overall it was causing a strain on his ships' shields, he needed to end this fast and the _Ronin_ was the fastest way to go.

"All ships, brace for impact!" The message was sent to the Gerkan flotilla at the last minute just before a blast and flash of light decimated the entirety of the alien fleet. Only a small handful of the alien ships remained, none of which were operational if the lack of lights were an indicator.

" _Ronin_ has cleared the field!" someone announced over the flotilla's comms, "Round up the survivors and show no mercy!"

For the next few hours the handful of aliens ships that survived the _Ronin_ 's attack were found and boarded. What the Gerkan boarding parties found caused James to pause. He was beginning to question his sanity by the time the interrogations were done and the aliens were executed. Scuttling what remained of the alien vessels but not before gathering anything useful, among which was a codex of information that baffled and further caused James to lose his grip on his sanity.

' _So let me think…I'm still in the Milky Way, that's where the Flagship series are set…but something is totally wrong here…_ ' James pondered on this coming to a single conclusion….he had no fucking clue what the hell was going on and when he tried, for the first time, to access the game menu, he found much to his shock that it was not there. In fact he couldn't will himself out of his current reality, the virtual world had become all too real but instead of panicking he decided to man up and face this shit head on. Try to figure out what had happened and how he'd gotten stuck inside of the game.

' _Could it be? Nah…'_ He shook his head at that thought, whether or not he was actually stuck in a game isn't his priority right now. He had to find a way to get out but first he has to know if there are others like him in a similar situation, one thing he thought about the most was the fact that he most probably he was going to be stuck as an alien forever if the current situation persists. ' _Crap._ '

" _Kai-Sho tama_." The _Kai-Isa_ , his second in command and loyal bodyguard, brought him out of his thoughts.

"Hmm…yes, what is it?"

"The _Ronin_ is awaiting further orders. It has taken up an orbiting position above the planet and has reported of massive infrastructures and other facilities below. He wishes to know if you're willing to issue the _Massuke_."

"I see…" No amount of words can describe how he was feeling nothing, no sympathy or emotions at all when saying what came next. "He has my permission…cleanse the planet."

* * *

 **Meanwhile…  
[Councilor Tevos]**

"Is this…real?" Councilor Tevos gasped when watching the video file, of a colossal metal giant descending on Khar'Shan, the Batarian homeworld.

"I'm afraid it is." Valern, the Salarian Councilor, nodded grimly his black eyes narrowing ever so slightly. "The Batarians are amassing a response fleet but they're too late."

Just as he said this, the video showed the planet visibly cracking and crumbling, the giant had floated back up to space and together with the rest of the strange sword-like ships quickly retreated to a safe distance as the world below them imploded into a million pieces of rock and debris. In the span of mere minutes, the Batarian homeworld ceased to exist, it and the population that lived on it. It didn't matter, slave, commoner, or nobles or officials, the world was destroyed and them along with it.

"These….these…whatever they are, by the Spirits they must be stopped!" Sparatus exclaimed, fear and anger in his eyes. But there was a hint of satisfaction that crept into his voice that neither of his counterparts detected.

"Indeed…uh…has the Batarian ambassador been informed?" Tevos asked, she never liked the Batarian or their pompous and arrogant ways but even they didn't deserve the fate dealt against them by the aliens. Granted the Batarians fired first and then used nukes but that still didn't warrant the destruction of a garden world and billions of sentient beings.

"He knows and is silently fuming in his office…er…at least that's what our listening devices were picking up last I checked with STG." Valern smiled for some reason. "What we need to focus on is that…well—"

The door opened to reveal an asari with a worried look on her face, she was practically about to cry. She rushed up to the Councilors and spoke directly to Tevos. "Thessia is under attack!"

"WHAT!" Tevos shot up from her chair and followed her secretary out of the room, following them were the confused Sparatus and Valern. Just as they entered the reception area of the Asari embassy, the voice of a news anchor announced,

"We're getting confirmed reports now from our sources on Thessia that there is indeed an invasion occurring. We go now to our correspondent, Kelia?"

The scene changes to Asari who was crouching behind a barricade. There four other asari taking cover beside her along with two Turians and a Quarian. Kelia took a moment to catch a breath before speaking into her camera.

"About two hours ago the small fleet of ships that managed to subdue the Asari defense fleet even when it looked like their main dreadnought was out of commission, have begun a planetary invasion. From the reports filtering in the invaders are of human origin and—"

She was cut off when a nearby explosion threw her off balance. Whilst on the Citadel the humans were being given suspicious glances by their alien peers, especially from the asari. They denied any knowledge of the human fleet and the Systems Alliance would later announce that they were unaware of any fleet matching the description of the one invading Thessia.

"Are you okay?" An asari asked the reporter who nodded. Her camera caught sight of the human invaders as they came around the corner. They were yelling and cursing all the while shooting at anything that moved or wasn't human.

"Goddess…" Kelia gasped as she watched the humans execute a surrendering Turian and even an asari teen.

"Ahhh!" The Turians behind the barricade screamed and fired their weapons at the humans. Surprisingly it was ineffective against the human's shields which weren't any kind that Kelia was familiar with. It flared blue and orange, the humans turned their attention to them and fired their energy weapons.

" _Concentrate fire on that barricade!_ " one of the humans yelled out to the others, in English. " _The Commodore wants that temple occupied and stripped anything valuable!_ "

Tevos paled when she heard that. Valern noticed this but said nothing, his suspicions about the Temple…if it was indeed the same one the humans were after, would be proven but he was still doubtful.

The Asari councilor excused herself and returned to her office where she opened her omni-tool to contact a trusted _friend_. The line connected and the first thing that she said was, "Lockdown the temple—hello…hello…damn it!"

Even though the connection with Thessia was being jammed, her message had at least been partially received and the agents stationed at the temple knew what to do. The information buried there must not fall into the humans' hands and she was going to have words with the Human Councilor, who was at Earth if she remembered correctly.

* * *

 **[James Kanton]**

There was a silence that permeated the bridge and the crew was oddly becoming uncomfortable as they waited and watched their commanding officer and liege-lord pacing back and forth with arms crossed. His face contorted in a scowl and his breathing was labored for some reason, an unfortunate officer whose concern was not misplaced had been sent sprawling onto the metal floor when James had backhanded him for approaching him too closely. The crew had stiffened at this and the _Hei-cho,_ had gotten up and returned to his station, head hung low.

"Has the computer made any progress on that codex yet?" James unexpectedly spoke causing the crew to jump slightly in their seats.

"It has, _Kai-Sho_." The _Kai-Isa_ , responded to this inquiry. He voice somber and his mood downcast. He could understand why his liege-lord would be so upset, in the first engagement since their arrival in this system, they had lost a total of four medium frigates and five heavy corvettes, in total over 5000 of their brethren had died instantly without even fighting back.

"Well? What is it?" James stopped pacing and turned to face his second. His pupils contracting into a slit, his sea green irises glowing in the dim lighting of the bridge, "I'm waiting, _Kai-Isa_."

Even James found his harsh tone disturbing but he had to assert his authority over the Gerkan and if he wanted to find out what the hell was going on he needed to maintain the façade that he was a ruthless yet noble warrior, like all Gerkans. However, he found inconsistencies with his second in command, the Gerkan was more than likely a pacifist, one of the minority that advocated for total peace and tranquility within the Gerkan civilization, he can understand and appreciate that sort of attitude but he has no need for that sentiment in his fleet…its either kill or be killed and if his second shows so much as a sign of weakness he'd have—

' _Whoa! What the hell?! What is wrong with me?!_ ' James shook his head nearly missing the important information but struggling with the fact that his humanity was at peril. If he didn't figure out what was going on then the side of his consciousness that formed his Gerkan mentality may just take over completely and he'd be ruled with Gerkan logic…the angry kind.

"Translation took longer than expected but in essence, the aliens that attacked us were called Batarians…the scum of the galaxy as it were. The planet we destroyed was their homeworld."

It took a while for that to register in Jams' brain but when it did he facepalmed. ' _Great!_ '

"Anything else?" James grumbled, irritated at himself and his hasty decisions.

"Yes, I can safely say that we are no longer where we began or for that matter…we're not even in the same galaxy." That brought out a gasp from James who looked at his second incredulously, ' _Tell me about it_ ' his expression seemed to say.

"So what do you suggest we do now?"

"Our entire systems are fully functioning again and with our more powerful sensors coming back online, the _Hei-Cho_ have picked up broadcasts from something the alien codex calls an ' _extranet'_." The _Kai-Isa_ hesitated but a nod from James and he continued, "it appears that one of the major worlds…in fact the homeworld of another of the alien species native to this galaxy, is under siege from humans."

"Humans?" James was certainly surprised to hear that, he was hoping that whoever it was that commanded the humans attacking the alien world was open to discussion…preferably on what the hell was going on!

"Yes, _Kai-Sho_. It appears to be humans belonging to the _Federation_ faction." James could have sworn the Gerkan sneered with disdain when saying that. "What would you have us do?"

"For now we have to find out what is going on and why we are here. So we're going to meet the Federation ships…wherever it is they are as of now."

The Gerkans all stopped what they were doing and stared at their liege-lord like he'd grown a second head. James felt unnerved and uncomfortable under their gaze so he bellowed, "What are you looking at me for?! Get this flotilla moving…NOW!"

His outburst had the desired effect but he could hear the crew's muttering so he growled and that got them to shut up. He glared at his second in command who whistled innocently before shuffling away to his post. Sighing, James looked to where his hover used to be and regretted smashing the thing to scrap. ' _Ugh, this sucks…so much for wanting to experience the reality of…virtual reality…goddammit!. Then again…I wonder how the others are doing or if they're even in the same shit I am._ '

* * *

Luther sneezed. He wiped his nose and looked around him muttering curses to whoever was taking his name in vain…or something.

* * *

Frank was in the middle of interrogating the alien women when he suddenly sneezed, the recoil sent his head into the opaque observation glass behind him shattering it. He heard the alien women gasp and the one that spoke English say, " **Awkward.** "

* * *

 **[Gerkan Military Database]**

 **[Gerkan Naval Command]**

 **[Ship Classification]**

 ** _'Ashigan'  
_** **Class: Heavy-Cruiser 'Snowpiercer'  
Configuration: 2.3 km in length, 689 m in width, 504 m height  
Armament: [PDT-Pulse Lancers (AA)]x190, [Main Lancers]x2, [Kinetic Autocannons]x150, [Classified]x1  
Additions: 4 Attachment/Docking Bays for Heavy Frigates and 6 for Medium Corvettes, 10 Hangar Bays for AI controlled fighter/bomber mechs, troop complements 5000+2000 ship crewmen [15th Mechanized Warrior Division, 909th Ashigaru Regiment, 7th _Shinobi_ Battalion and the vaunted 5th Armored Division]. **

**_'_** ** _Doragon'  
_** **Class: Assault Dreadnought 'Anatak'  
Configuration: 4.5 km length, 2.3 km width, 3.3 km height  
Armament: [PDT-Pulse Lances (AA)]x300, [Lancer Turrets]x140, [Main Lancers]x4, [Kinetic Autocannons]x250, [Classified]x2  
Additions: 2 Attachment/Docking Bays for Light Cruisers and 4 for medium destroyers, 20 Hangar Bays for AI controlled fighter/bomber mechs, troop complements 10,000+3500 crewmen [12th Mechanized Warrior Division, 128th Ashigaru Regiment, 5th _Shinobi_ Battalion and the infamous 666th Armored Division].**

* * *

 _ **The first five chapters will deal with the displaced players being introduced though now that the main ones have been introduced, its a build up to a confrontation I've got planned. So to recap, Luther and his flotilla arrived in the Terminus system where Shepard's ship is under attack from the Collectors and decides to intervene. Frank's ship somehow got separated from the rest of his flotilla and appeared above Thessia where a battle ensues and in this chapter it is implied that the Asari defense fleet was defeated...don't know if that is possible but seeing as how the Federation cruisers would be classified as 'dreadnoughts', I can see that defeat happening especially when the Federation utilizes energy weaponry.**_

 _ **James on the other hand shows up in the Batarian's home system and subsequently loses his temper when he loses a few of his ships resulting in the destruction of Khar'Shan. All in all its been interesting for me atleast. Review and feel free to point out any mistakes so I can correct it.**_

 _ **-Danen5**_

 _ **(Updates will be sporadic at best)**_


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